Kolkata: Former state information and culture minister and singer Indranil Sen was dramatically arrested by Kolkata Police’s detective department officers as he stepped out of Enforcement Directorate’s Salt Lake CGO Complex office on Wednesday. The former Trinamool Congress MLA from Chandernagore had appeared before ED for questioning in connection with the alleged multi-crore Durga Puja privilege pass scam.“We have found crores were transacted through him, for which he could not provide any explanation,” said joint CP (crime) Kunal Aggarwal.Sen joins a long list of Trinamool seniors arrested since May on allegations ranging from corruption to extortion and intimidation. They include former ministers Sujit Bose, Udayan Guha and Dilip Mondal, former MLAs Sabyasachi Dutta, Shaukat Molla, Ajit Maity and Nirmal Ghosh, former councillors Sushanta Ghosh, Swapan Samaddar, Sushmita Bhattacharya Chatterjee, Sudip Polley and Md Jasimuddin, and senior party functionaries Jayprakash Majumdar and Swaroop Biswas.Sen’s arrest follows a series of legal setbacks with the high court rejecting his anticipatory bail application and the Supreme Court bench of Justice Dipankar Dutta on Tuesday recusing from hearing his petition for personal reasons, leaving the matter pending.The former minister’s arrest in the afternoon followed a flurry of activities by cops with at least 10 officers from Lalbazar reaching the ED office with official documents and another team reaching Bidhannagar North police station for assistance. Around 5.10pm, amid heavy police presence outside the facility, Sen was escorted to a police vehicle.Shortly afterwards, CM Suvendu Adhikari said, “Both ED and Kolkata Police were investigating him. They must have found evidence, and legal action was taken on that basis.”Adhikari claimed former CM Mamata Banerjee was also involved in the scam. “I have said at many political meetings that the scam happened with the direct backing of the former CM. He did not act alone. The former CM may also have had a share. Indranil Sen used to travel with her in the same car and sing songs with her. Earlier he was close to CPM. These people change colours. After the change in govt, he had begun praising the administration,” Adhikari said, adding that nearly Rs 30 lakh was transferred from Sen’s Octave Records to Banerjee. The CM also alleged that Sen used to take cuts from singers’ payments.Investigation into the alleged scam started following a written complaint at Bowbazar police station by international travel consultant Joydeep Mukherjee claiming that Sen and his wife, Madhuchhanda, used an organisation called MassArt to sell tickets priced between Rs 4,000 and Rs 12,000 for exclusive access to 24 popular Durga Puja pandals and fabricated a partnership with Unesco, which the agency later denied. MassArt was set up in 2022. As part of the probe, ED conducted raids at 15 locations associated with Sen on Sept 29.Sen and his wife have denied the allegations of financial irregularities. Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, too, has termed the probe politically motivated. Ghosh earlier clarified that the Rs 30 lakh transferred by Sen’s record company to the former CM was legal royalty payments for her songs and literary works and was properly accounted for with TDS deductions in income-tax returns.